Dr.

Najuma Abdul Razack

Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
NIT Calicut.
 Project
• Preplanned activity with an aim and action programme is a project.
Engineering project such as construction of dam, a rail, road, a process plant etc.

• For the success of project a good planning, a well thought out, and efficiently
executed action programme and sound financial management are as important as
sound design and engineering.

• Project engineering is scientific approach towards execution of

engineering projects.
•A successful project should produce the expected results within the
scheduled time and money.
•Chemical engineers are concerned with chemical plant projects.
A project should be

•Technically feasible
•Economically viable
•Politically suitable
•Socially acceptable.
• Small projects : Under the guidance of proj Engineer
• Large projects : project managers or management team
: contracted to engg. companies

• Proj Engineer : primary technical point of contact for the consumer.

 Project tasks

• Performance calculations
• Writing specifications
• Preparing bids
• Review equipment proposal
• Evaluating and selecting equipments
• Prepare various lists
• Create drawings: electrical installation diagrams, piping , instrumentation
and other drawings
 Important stages through a typical chemical plant
project passes
• 1. R&D
• 2. TEFR
• 3. Process design
• 4. Process engineering
• 5. Detailed engineering
• 6. Plant location and site selection
• 7. Procurement
• 8. Erection
• 9. Construction
• 10. Commissioning.
 Types of Projects
• 1. Greenfield Project –A plant constructed from zero level and almost on a
barren land, starting from land procurement and site development.
• 2. Add on project –essentially mean those project that are built within an
existing complex or built around the main project. Such a project could be an
addition of a new facility.
a. Battery limit Project –a new project that is set up in an existing plant by using
most of the available infrastructure facilities such as utilities, administration
buildings, security, tank farm area and so on.
b. Forward integration-a proposed project based on the products of existing
plant as raw materials
c. Backward integration –manufacture the raw materials for the existing project.
d. Expansion project –addition of more capacity to existing facilities can be
deemed as horizontal integration.
e. Diversification –totally diversify into altogether different product range
f. Debottlenecking –this may involve the addition or replacement of equipment
and systems within the existing plant to increase the plant capacity.
 Chemical project classification
• 1. Type of product-
A, Basic chemicals-building block of chemical industries (bulk).
B, Commodity chemicals –Ammonia, urea, methanol, phenol, PVC
C, Speciality chemicals-Perfumery, dye, pigments and pharmaceuticals. (low
volume)
• 2. Project capital outlay –mega, large, normal, medium, small.

• 3. Industrial sector –based on end uses and the fields of application.

Petrochemicals, fertilizer, pharma, dyes, polymers.

• 4. According to the project time

A, Normal project-take normal time, adequate time is allowed for
implementation.
B, Crash project –additional capital cost are incurred to gain time.
C, Disaster project-round the clock work, high capital cost, project time is
drastically reduced.
 Project-conception to commissioning
•Project conception –project can be conceived from business and market
opportunities.
•Market potential
•Technology search –to see whether technology is available to manufacture the
product.
•Preliminary feasibility report-is aid to investment decision.
•Detailed technology search and evaluation –with help of competent project
engineering company, a detailed process or technology selection may be carried
out. MoU may be executed at this stage with process know how licensor and
detailed engineering contractor.
•Site selection
•Preparation of detailed Techno economic feasibility –known as a bankable
document to obtain loan from financial institution.
•Statutory clearances –from central and state government, local bodies,
EIA,HAZAN.
•Contract for Know how and detailed engineering –a contract should be
signed with process licensor for the supply know how. A contract should be
signed with the detailed engineering contractor.
•Project financing
•Project engineering –PE involves detailed engineering, procurement,
construction and inspection.
•Project commissioning –after construction is completed, Mechanical
commissioning of the plant is carried out. This followed by process
commissioning during which the guarantee runs are performed by process
licensor. The project is then handed over to the production personnel.
 Role of project Engineer

• •The design and erection of a process plant never be completed solely by

members of one branch of engineering.
• •Instead of such an undertaking must result from coordinated efforts of
Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical and Civil engineers, Chemists, and
specialists from any other fields.
• •This combined effort, however must be directed by a single individual
who can guide the engineering, anticipate the routine problems and
schedule the various phases of work (Inter discipline co ordination).

• •In process industries, to assign this over all responsibility for the entire
design and erection of a process plant to a single individual called project
engineer.
• •Project engineer require a sound chemical engineering background and
knowledge of other engineering fields, business administration and
economics.
• •When both contractor and customer (owner) are participating, the
customers project engineer and the contractors project engineer have
duties essentially parallel.
• •The customers project engineer(CPE) must supply the Contractors project
engineer(PE) with all the information concerning the customers
requirements and preferences. He must check and approve all designs,
and obtain comments from various design and operating groups in his
organization.
• •The contractors project engineer must be responsible for transmitting
information to the various groups in his own organization.

• •Estimate for the cost of design and constructing the proposed plant.
• •Process design
• •Mechanical specification
• •Process information is transmitted to various design and drafting group
• •Plant layout
• •Purchasing of equipments
• •Preparation of site (construction begins)
• •Review the design , consultation with CPE
• •PE must see that these changes are properly executed and both
customers and contractors interests are guarded.
• •Project engineers responsibilities do not end until the operating
department has shown that the plant meets the design specification and
process and mechanical guarantee.
 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
• Evolution of a process
1. Process research
2. Research evaluation for possible commercialization
3. Process development
4. Preliminary engineering studies
5. Pilot plant
6. Semi commercial plant
7. Commercial plant
 Process Research

• Objective of process research is to find out by library

survey and laboratory work if the product can be
made and what the yields and rate of conversion.
• •Provide scientific data that will permit the rational
design of a manufacturing process with the minimum
time and equipment spent in pilot plant studies and to
operate the final process under the most favorable and
economic condition with respect to all variable.
 Research Evaluation
• •Object of this evaluation is to determine the potentialities of a
project for further research and development work.
• •Engineering and economic analysis.
• •Comparison of raw material and finished product price etc.
• •Make an economic analysis of project
• •Outline the unit operation and process involved in the projected
manufacturing process.
• •What additional information needed to complete the design etc.
 Process development
• •Process development studies should be conducted to obtain
process design information from the R&D, Laboratory,
Literature and the Pilot plant.
• •Reasonably accurate material and energy balance must be
available in addition to physical properties of materials being
handled.
 Preliminary Engineering studies
• •Material of construction
• •Size of the equipment
• •Measuring devices
• •Safety aspects
• •Environmental aspects
• •Maintenance methods
• •Drainage
• •utilities
 Pilot plant
• •Pilot or proto type plants are completely medium scale
processing unit containing all essential product producing
elements including control.
• •Conversion of laboratory data from the R&D group into plant
design data is a major function of Pilot plant.
• •To study of byproduct recovery and waste disposal problems.
• •Pilot plant as the trouble shooting division
• •Operate the pilot plant with the assurance that all the risks,
both technical and economic, in the full scale commercial
plant have been minimized or preferably eliminated.
•To obtain a fair approximation of labour costs and
manufacturing expenses.
•Pilot plant in order to expedite the design of the commercial
unit.
•Control and instrumentation-pilot plant design and operation
are part of process development.
•Pilot plant serves a very important purpose of testing
instrumentation and automatic control
•Pilot plant costs-pilot plant costs constitute one of the largest
items of expense in research budget.
 Semi Commercial plant
•Larger than pilot plant, its primary purpose is the
production of sufficient quantities of new chemical to
permits sales in small lots.
•Out put of the semi commercial plant is introduced to the
market by sales team. As the demand grow, the semi
commercial plant is operated at an increasing percentage of
capacity.
•When full capacity is reached, preparations are made to
transfer the production to a commercial plant.
 Commercial Plant
• •If the process can survive the tests of operation and if the
production cost is sufficiently low, the last and final stage of
development, the full sized commercial plant may be carried out.
• •This final step include the coordination of all chemical and
engineering data obtained and their translation into a detailed
commercial plant design.
• •In order to design a commercial unit the following considerations
are important.
• •Specification of equipment
• •Specification of materials
• •Plant lay out
• •Location of plant
• •Selection of personnel
• •Production cost per unit material
 Techno economic feasibility study
•The term feasible means capable of being dealt successfully. In engineering
sense, feasibility means that the project is technically possible and that it can be
implemented safely without polluting the environment. Economic feasibility
implies that it can justified on economic grounds, which means the finances
available can be utilized to the best advantage.

• •Feasibility report is the document for governments approval and sanction

and also obtaining funds from financial institutions (bankable document).
• •It must provide in a readily understandable form of all data needed for
decision making by the management and government.

• •Technical feasibility determine the possibility of a project being carried out

and also identifying the alternative ways in which the project could be carried
out.

• •Economic consideration determine the project desirability and tell whether it

should be done or not and if so where, and how. Besides these, the project’s
benefits to society.
 Contents and format of presenting the feasibility
report
•Introduction
–Objective of the report
–About the industrial organization taking up the project.
–Organizations present and proposed plants, description of products etc
–Reasons for setting the plant.

•Present status, product demand and marketability

–Properties and uses of products
–Present availability
–Present demand and end use pattern
–Anticipated production
–Pattern and location of demands
•Technical feasibility
–Process selection
–Economic plant size
–Raw materials requirements
–Utilities
–Byproducts
–Lay out of plants, service facilities etc.
–Site and local condition
–Plant and equipment availability
–Infrastructure availability

•Location study
–In respect of raw materials, utilities, labour
–In respect to market
–Rail, road, port facilities
–Disposal of effluents
–Alternate location studies and comparative advantages
•Organization and staffing including training scheme.
•Marketing, distribution arrangement
•Technical services and product development, laboratory
•Project estimates
–Capital cost
–Cost of production
–Source of funds (financial closure)

•Profitability and financial analysis

–Cash flow statement
–Balance sheet forecast
–Rate of return, rate of average investments

•Construction programme-CPM,PERT, Charts

•National economic benefits
–Import substitution
–Employment potential
–Revenue generation to government
–Regional development

•Summary and conclusion

•Suggestion for implementation

–Detail subject matter required for making selection, estimation,
profitability and evaluation of the project.
 Plant location

• •If the plant is not located in the most economically

favorable position
• •The competitive advantage of process is wiped out.
• •Minimize cost of production and distribution
• •Room for future expansion
• •General living condition
• •Plant location is a very important pre-project planning
activity.
 Factors to be considered
•Primary factors
–Raw material supply
–Market
–Power and fuel supply
–Water supply
–Climate

•Specific factors
–Transportation
–Waste disposal
–Labour
–Regulatory laws
–Taxes
–Site characteristics
––Flood and fire control
 Project Site
•Site selection is a very important pre project planning
activity.
• The site has considerable impact on the
performance of the project during its life cycle.
• The project profitability and productivity are site
specific.
•Site selection is as important as process selection.
 Site selection
•Location with reference to adjacent areas and restriction
imposed thereon.
•Labour regulation and condition.
•Accessibility to freight and passenger transportation.
•Type of soil.
•Elevation above sea level.
•Ground water level
•Drainage condition
•Atm condition, wind velocity, rain fall
•Special condition such as earthquakes, cyclones
•The ideal plant site is one which has good hard surfaced highways
leadings to all directions, railway sliding and preferably has deep
water transportation, also proximity to one or more commercial air
port is a definite asset.
•Source of danger from neighboring industries
•Polluting industries, site should be selected at a considerable
distance from residential and public institution.
•Cost of the land.
•Cost of site development

•Availability of local public utilities.

•If there are other plants in the immediate neighbourhood of a site
under consideration, it is advisable to find out what products these
plants are manufacturing and by what methods.
•Availability of fire station.
•EIA
 Site data
•Site specific information is important to the
process licensor as well as detailed engineering
contractor.
•Geographical location
•Soil survey report
•Wind velocity and direction
•Other metrological data
•Quality of water
•Power
•Local discharge/ Emission standard
•Local design/ Fabrication standard
 Site clearances
•Various important clearances the project owner needs to seek
before starting construction at the site.
•Environmental clearances(EIA,HAZAN)
•Power-SEB
•Water-Water authority,
State industrial development corporation.
•Port
•Civil aviation
•Indian railway
•Local authority
•Factories and boilers
•PCB
 Preliminary data for construction of
projects.
• After a site has been selected for the construction of a
process plant, a large amount of information must be
accumulated before design work can begin.
Engineers, purchasing agents and construction
supervisors must have detailed information about the
site and surrounding area.
 Typical preliminary data
•Engineering data -essential data necessary for the engineering of process plant which should
be obtained by the survey.

–Weather data
–Prevailing wind direction
–Maximum wind velocity and Hurricane or Tornado frequency
–Maximum and Minimum atmospheric temperature.
–Relative humidity
–Rainfall
–Snow condition
–Local flood or Tide condition
–Plant terrain
–Water requirement and supply

•Electric power and fuel services

-Electric power
-Fuel sources
•Product and raw material transportation and storage
•Procurement data
–Earliest date when material may be received at jobsite.
–Basic materials of construction available in area.

–Connecting rail roads

–Main highway location
–Types of industrial shops in the immediate area suitable for repair or
maintenance of construction equipments.
–Storage space and storage area for plant equipment and construction
material.

•Construction data-all construction phases are affected by local conditions.

–Labour-wage rate, Trade union contracts, availability of local skilled
craftsman.
–Trade union representation
–Other projects planned in the area and time of peak employment
–Union permits
–Availability of housing
–Food and recreation facilities
–Medical facilities
–Transportation
–Parking facilities
–Change and Sanitary facilities.
–Construction personnel identification

•Construction interference
–Overhead or Underground electrical power lines.
–Overhead or Underground piping and sewers.
–Plant hazards
–Receiving and handling of plant equipments